Top tips for cheap home renovation

If you’ve recently bought your first home, it’s not uncommon to find the property will need some work to bring it up to the standard you’d like. However, you don’t need to blow the budget to make your home more appealing – small changes could be all that’s necessary.

Keep reading for some tips to transform your new home cheaply but effectively.

The kitchen

As one of the most valuable rooms in the property, and also as somewhere you’ll spend a fair amount of time, the kitchen is one room you might want to tackle as a priority. In a house that needs modernising, you might need to replace kitchen units, but an alternative is to simply sand down and repaint the current cupboards, or replace just the cupboard doors for a more up-to-date look.

If you can’t afford to pull out dated tiles, consider investing in some special paint that will allow you to give the tiles a completely new look for a fraction of the price, while a lick of paint might suffice in refreshing the walls and ceiling.

The lounge

Your property’s sitting room may have an old-fashioned carpet, so this is something you might want to get rid of. You could replace the carpet with something modern and neutral or, to save money, keep the floorboards on show, sand them down and wax or varnish them. Adding a shaggy rug and matching cushions on the sofa can make the space seem rustic and give it a natural touch you could echo through your decor.

Meanwhile, if the lounge has a feature fireplace, clean up the tiles and bring the fireplace back to its former glory. Alternatively, you can pick up a reclaimed fireplace or tiles from certain providers around the country, as well as via auction and second-hand goods websites.

The bathroom

When renovating the bathroom, you might want to pull out a carpet if there is one and replace it with some easy-to-clean lino, painting the walls a neutral shade to brighten up the space. A new suite might be necessary if the current one is a peculiar colour or very dated but, if it isn’t, simply installing some modern cheap bathroom taps and replacing a dingy shower curtain with a contemporary screen could be enough to spruce up the space.

Meanwhile, if you have a little more cash to splash in the bathroom, think about installing a shower enclosure to modernise the area and make it more useable.

The bedroom

Older properties might require quite a bit of work in the bedroom if there are old fitted units that need removing, for example. Wardrobes and drawers are typically built in around a space for the bed, so you might need to spend some of your budget having the cupboards pulled out. This should leave you plenty of room to decorate and furnish the space as you see fit, although you may need to replace the carpet – especially if there are bare areas previously hidden by the integrated units.

A couple of pots of paint, a pretty light fixture and some new curtains can all help you bring the bedroom up-to-date, while you might also want to spend some time plastering over old-fashioned textured ceilings. If the ceiling is covered with Artex, you might need to draft in the professionals to take a look at it in case it contains asbestos, however.